A gang armed with wooden sticks turned up to a secondary school ‘adamant they were going to fight any Asian pupils they came across’, a court heard.

Pupils had a missile thrown at them as they left at home time during the incident at Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School in Oswaldtwistle.

Burnley Crown Court heard that the incident happened after two pupils - one white and one Asian - had been suspended after a fight.

The court was told that 19-year-old Oliver Smith was one of two teenagers in the gang who were holding wooden sticks.

Smith, of Stanhill Lane, Oswaldtwistle, pleaded guilty to affray.

His co-defendant Jordan Whitehead, 20, of Mount Pleasant, Oswaldtwistle, pleaded guilty to a public order offence.

The court heard that he was not at the scene when racist remarks were made, and that he was not carrying a weapon.

Two other youths, from Blackburn, have previously been sentenced at the Youth Court and given a youth referral order and youth rehabilitation order.

David Traynor, prosecuting, said the gang was made up of ‘irate’ white teenagers who were overheard in a nearby alleyway saying ‘we are going to get them’ before the incident on January 27 last year.

The attackers then gathered outside the school.

The court heard how a teacher who tried to intervene said the group were ‘adamant they were going to fight any Asian students they came across’.

Recorder Nicholas Clarke QC said there was ‘much racial abuse’ during the incident and the ‘racial element of the affray [charge] makes it all the more serious’.

He told the court that Smith’s position was made worse because he was involved in a ‘direct confrontation’ with a teacher two days after the incident.

Robert Elias, defending Smith, said he had no previous convictions and is currently in work. He requested a pre-sentence report.

Smith and Whitehead were bailed for sentence on June 1.

Rhyddings headteacher Paul Trickett said: “As a school we are extremely pleased that the police and courts have viewed this incident as seriously as we do and taken it to its ultimate conclusion in the court.

"There is and can be no tolerance of this level of anti-social behaviour in our community.”